President Donald Trump said on Friday that Vice President JD Vance will focus on investigating fraud, particularly in Democrat-run states in his new role as “fraud czar.”
“His focus will be ‘EVERYWHERE,’ but primarily in those Blue States,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social, singling out California, Illinois, Minnesota, Maine and New York. He said that “raids have already started” in Los Angeles, where on Thursday federal prosecutors announced that eight people had been charged in separate cases for trying to defraud the healthcare system out of $50 million.
Prosecutors said those cases were pursued in coordination with Vance’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud. Vance touted the arrests in a social media post on Thursday, saying the “task force isn’t wasting any time cracking down on fraud.”
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Trump also stated without evidence that the supposed amount of federal funds lost to fraud is “so large” that if Vance’s efforts are successful they would “literally” allow the U.S. to balance its budget. “Good Luck JD!” he added.
Trump had already signed an executive order last month putting Vance in charge of what Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called “anti-fraud task force” which will “investigate fraud across the country.” Trump had also previously charged Vance with leading administration efforts to investigate fraud in Minnesota.
The task force will be chaired by the Vice President, with the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission serving as Vice Chair. The Assistant to the President for Homeland Security will act as senior adviser, while an executive director will oversee day-to-day operations, according to reports.
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The task force will be charged with coordinating a comprehensive strategy to stop fraud, waste, and abuse across Federal benefit programs, including housing, food, medical care, and cash assistance administered with State and local partners, in order to protect these benefits for eligible Americans. This would involve coordinating measures to improve eligibility verification, implement pre-payment controls, detect high-risk fraud trends, and disrupt and dismantle fraud networks and the mechanisms through which fraud is committed.
A copy of the executive order released by the White House said members of the task force are to come up with a plan in 90 days to implement anti-fraud measures. A White House fact sheet describing the order mentioned California, Illinois, New York, Maine and Colorado as U.S. states with “insufficient” fraud oversight.